1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an improved and useful safety device for preventing the lower portion of ladders, that are positioned against structures, from slipping, resulting in injury to the user or damage to property. The device of this invention is adapted for use as an anchor on nonsolid surfaces, such as grass, snow or soil.
In the use of ladders on slippery surfaces, or, especially, on hills, the base portion of the ladder sometimes slips outward causing serious accidents. While various ladder staying devices exist in the prior art, some of these are cumbersome to use or expensive to purchase and install. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a safe, and economical ladder staying apparatus. It is a further object of the invention to provide a ladder staying device that can be easily carried and can be installed using any suitable hammering device or hard weight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of ladder safety and stabilizing devices appear in the patent literature. U.S. Pat. No. 2,145,619 teaches a device for anchoring a ladder into the ground, which is bracketed on the ladder legs and which has spikes that slide on guides located within the brackets, into a downward position so that the spikes can be forced into the ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 776,446 has a horizontal member with sockets, into which the lower ends of the ladder rails slide; a penetrating anchor device is located vertically, in the center of the horizontal member and is screwed into the ground as an anchor.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,523,535 teaches a device that hooks on to the center of a low rung of a ladder and provides an adjustable ladder anchor for use in areas where the positioning of the ladder itself must be on a hard surface but where the anchor must exist at a distance and can be installed in a place where there is nonsolid ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,449,609 teaches a ladder stabilizing device that screws on the inner leg of a ladder and is able to assume positions on the bottom of the ladder to conform to the different angular positions that the ladder is placed in according to its various uses. Various other patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,907,828, and 530,374 employ stabilizing devices which increase the horizontal base of the ladder with or without shallow ground anchors. The present invention differs from the previous patents cited in several ways. It requires no installation on the ladder prior to use, is inexpensive, has no moving parts and is easy to transport. Also, unlike most of the other ladder stopping devices reviewed, the ladder stop of the present invention is positioned to the back of each ladder leg so as to provide support for the ladder at the points where slippage is most likely to occur. In addition, the present invention can be used both with ladders that are footed and with ones that are not.